HUGO LARA CHÁVEZ
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264461
- eISBN:
- 9780191734625
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264461.003.0007
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Latin American Studies
This chapter discusses a city created by a cinema and a cinema created by the city, with emphasis on the dynamic interplay of these two. In this chapter the focus is on the last three decades, from ...
More
This chapter discusses a city created by a cinema and a cinema created by the city, with emphasis on the dynamic interplay of these two. In this chapter the focus is on the last three decades, from 1977 to 2007, a period wherein the symbols and social expressions that were used to delineate the city have grown in strength while some others have consolidated to form Mexico’s current identity. In some of the cases, these symbols were placed in the film intentionally, while others seemed like they appeared through chance. The development of cinema in Mexico was bound with the developments of the city. Mexican cinema has played an important role as a mirror that reflected the developments within the city. Through the medium of film, the moving image became the most useful tool for visualizing the immeasurable wholeness of the city. In this chapter, the most defining moments that have found their way into the Mexican cinema are discussed. These events are the 1985 earthquake, the realities of globalization, and the defeat of the PRI in the 2000 elections. These are interwoven into narratives and images that explore dislocation, isolation and different forms of resistance.Less
This chapter discusses a city created by a cinema and a cinema created by the city, with emphasis on the dynamic interplay of these two. In this chapter the focus is on the last three decades, from 1977 to 2007, a period wherein the symbols and social expressions that were used to delineate the city have grown in strength while some others have consolidated to form Mexico’s current identity. In some of the cases, these symbols were placed in the film intentionally, while others seemed like they appeared through chance. The development of cinema in Mexico was bound with the developments of the city. Mexican cinema has played an important role as a mirror that reflected the developments within the city. Through the medium of film, the moving image became the most useful tool for visualizing the immeasurable wholeness of the city. In this chapter, the most defining moments that have found their way into the Mexican cinema are discussed. These events are the 1985 earthquake, the realities of globalization, and the defeat of the PRI in the 2000 elections. These are interwoven into narratives and images that explore dislocation, isolation and different forms of resistance.
Nilo Couret
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780520296848
- eISBN:
- 9780520969162
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520296848.003.0002
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter revisits the popular comedies of Mario “Cantinflas” Moreno from the golden age of Mexican cinema and argues that these films are not simply escapist and ideologically suspect but ...
More
This chapter revisits the popular comedies of Mario “Cantinflas” Moreno from the golden age of Mexican cinema and argues that these films are not simply escapist and ideologically suspect but represent peripheral spaces of subversive difference that in their cultural and historical specificity cannot be easily co-opted by a cultural-imperialist center. Cantinflas’s humor is characterized by his linguistic contortionism, or cantinflismo, in which he says plenty without saying anything, a verbal nonsense that sidesteps narrative registers and affords a bodily engagement through laughter that relies on particular cultural codes and learned structures of feeling. This chapter provincializes classical Hollywood cinema by arguing for a peripheral vision modeled on the comedic practice of the relajo, which plays with the classical spatial arrangement of screen and theater space. This chapter examines the comedian’s quick verbal play in addition to formal devices, editing techniques, and doubled narrative structures that “sidestep” on multiple levels.Less
This chapter revisits the popular comedies of Mario “Cantinflas” Moreno from the golden age of Mexican cinema and argues that these films are not simply escapist and ideologically suspect but represent peripheral spaces of subversive difference that in their cultural and historical specificity cannot be easily co-opted by a cultural-imperialist center. Cantinflas’s humor is characterized by his linguistic contortionism, or cantinflismo, in which he says plenty without saying anything, a verbal nonsense that sidesteps narrative registers and affords a bodily engagement through laughter that relies on particular cultural codes and learned structures of feeling. This chapter provincializes classical Hollywood cinema by arguing for a peripheral vision modeled on the comedic practice of the relajo, which plays with the classical spatial arrangement of screen and theater space. This chapter examines the comedian’s quick verbal play in addition to formal devices, editing techniques, and doubled narrative structures that “sidestep” on multiple levels.
Dona M. Kercher
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231172097
- eISBN:
- 9780231850735
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231172097.003.0005
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter traces an enthusiastic and nationally inflected welcome for Hitchcock's films in Mexico City. On the one hand, how Hitchcock's movies were marketed to highlight melodrama, rather than ...
More
This chapter traces an enthusiastic and nationally inflected welcome for Hitchcock's films in Mexico City. On the one hand, how Hitchcock's movies were marketed to highlight melodrama, rather than crime or mystery, circles back to themes of humour and melodramatic hybridisation, seen earlier in the Almodóvar chapter, but on the other hand, it also locates them within the specific context of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema. Emphasising the impact of a national narrative on film reception, this chapter details some surprising revelations regarding how Hitchcock's movies became part of a major historical event—Trotsky's arrival in Mexico City—as well as how they fit into the narrative of the county's economic development and progress, especially through the expansion of movie houses and airline travel.Less
This chapter traces an enthusiastic and nationally inflected welcome for Hitchcock's films in Mexico City. On the one hand, how Hitchcock's movies were marketed to highlight melodrama, rather than crime or mystery, circles back to themes of humour and melodramatic hybridisation, seen earlier in the Almodóvar chapter, but on the other hand, it also locates them within the specific context of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema. Emphasising the impact of a national narrative on film reception, this chapter details some surprising revelations regarding how Hitchcock's movies became part of a major historical event—Trotsky's arrival in Mexico City—as well as how they fit into the narrative of the county's economic development and progress, especially through the expansion of movie houses and airline travel.
Valentina Vitali
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780719099656
- eISBN:
- 9781526109774
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719099656.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
While post-war popular cinema has traditionally been excluded from accounts of national cinemas, the last fifteen years have seen the academy’s gradual rediscovery of cult and, more, generally, ...
More
While post-war popular cinema has traditionally been excluded from accounts of national cinemas, the last fifteen years have seen the academy’s gradual rediscovery of cult and, more, generally, popular films. Why, many years after their release, do we now deem these films worthy of study? The book situates ‘low’ film genres in their economic and culturally specific contexts (a period of unstable ‘economic miracles’ in different countries and regions) and explores the interconnections between those contexts, the immediate industrial-financial interests sustaining the films, and the films’ aesthetics. It argues that the visibility (or not) of popular genres in a nation’s account of its cinema is an indirect but demonstrable effect of the centrality (or not) of a particular kind of capital in that country’s economy. Through in-depth examination of what may at first appear as different cycles in film production and history – the Italian giallo, the Mexican horror film and Hindi horror cinema – Capital and popular cinema lays the foundations of a comparative approach to film; one capable of accounting for the whole of a national film industry’s production (‘popular’ and ‘canonic’) and applicable to the study of film genres globally.Less
While post-war popular cinema has traditionally been excluded from accounts of national cinemas, the last fifteen years have seen the academy’s gradual rediscovery of cult and, more, generally, popular films. Why, many years after their release, do we now deem these films worthy of study? The book situates ‘low’ film genres in their economic and culturally specific contexts (a period of unstable ‘economic miracles’ in different countries and regions) and explores the interconnections between those contexts, the immediate industrial-financial interests sustaining the films, and the films’ aesthetics. It argues that the visibility (or not) of popular genres in a nation’s account of its cinema is an indirect but demonstrable effect of the centrality (or not) of a particular kind of capital in that country’s economy. Through in-depth examination of what may at first appear as different cycles in film production and history – the Italian giallo, the Mexican horror film and Hindi horror cinema – Capital and popular cinema lays the foundations of a comparative approach to film; one capable of accounting for the whole of a national film industry’s production (‘popular’ and ‘canonic’) and applicable to the study of film genres globally.
Linda B. Hall
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804784078
- eISBN:
- 9780804786218
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804784078.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Latin American History
Dolores del Río's enormously successful career in Hollywood, in Mexico, and internationally illuminates issues of race, ethnicity, and gender through the lenses of beauty and celebrity. She and her ...
More
Dolores del Río's enormously successful career in Hollywood, in Mexico, and internationally illuminates issues of race, ethnicity, and gender through the lenses of beauty and celebrity. She and her husband left Mexico in 1925, as both their well-to-do families suffered from the economic downturn that followed the Mexican Revolution. Far from being stigmatized as a woman of color, this Mexican star was acknowledged as the epitome of beauty in the Hollywood of the 1920s and early 1930s. While she insisted upon her ethnicity, she was nevertheless coded white by the film industry and its fans, and she appeared for more than a decade as a romantic lead opposite white actors. Returning to Mexico in the early 1940s, she brought enthusiasm and prestige to the Golden Age of Mexican cinema, becoming one of the great divas of Mexican film. With struggle and perseverance, she overcame the influence of men in both countries who hoped to dominate her, ultimately controlling her own life professionally and personally.Less
Dolores del Río's enormously successful career in Hollywood, in Mexico, and internationally illuminates issues of race, ethnicity, and gender through the lenses of beauty and celebrity. She and her husband left Mexico in 1925, as both their well-to-do families suffered from the economic downturn that followed the Mexican Revolution. Far from being stigmatized as a woman of color, this Mexican star was acknowledged as the epitome of beauty in the Hollywood of the 1920s and early 1930s. While she insisted upon her ethnicity, she was nevertheless coded white by the film industry and its fans, and she appeared for more than a decade as a romantic lead opposite white actors. Returning to Mexico in the early 1940s, she brought enthusiasm and prestige to the Golden Age of Mexican cinema, becoming one of the great divas of Mexican film. With struggle and perseverance, she overcame the influence of men in both countries who hoped to dominate her, ultimately controlling her own life professionally and personally.
